“To hell with this, I can’t get it working Top Level,” Jason said into his headset. He was sitting next to a blown out Starbucks; its windows spread across the ground and vines and other plants flowing into its main room. The other thing next to him was a container containing a VCT radio. He rubbed his eyes as the effects of not sleeping for weeks on end kicked in. “Top Level I need directions now.” Five years after the end of everything and Earth was still not repaired. He was in the middle of a small town somewhere in Oregon with a SCAR assault rifle over one shoulder and a bag containing everything he owned over the other. Waiting for the reply he looked out at the buildings surrounding him; all of them were in pieces with masonry scattered across the street and vines plants growing through all of it. A bleep from his headset made him turn towards the dark alleyway to his left where to orange lights glowed dimly. He narrowed his eyes there was no one meant to be in his sector and the light had not been there a moment before. Standing up he pulled the SCAR from his shoulder and flicked the safety of. No point in not being able to fire if he had to he thought with a small smile. He waded into the alleyways darkness eyes flicking from side to side. Were the lights moving towards him he asked himself? It was way too late for him to be thinking about that as he was about to find out. Out from the gloom something launched grabbing Jason and throwing him backward. He depressed the trigger and bullet casings flew out from the side as he was smashed into the sidewalk. He cried out as he felt two ribs break. Taking a breath he brought up the gun and fired into…what? His cries were ended as two claws swung through the air and into his heart. A crunch of bones came from the alleyway and all was right again with the world with one less Jason.

Top Level Offices, Middle of Portland

“We lost another one sir,” a man dressed like the other 50 in the room in black t-shirts, grey and black camouflage pants, and combat boots. They sat looking at computer screens typing a few letters in every so often but mainly just staring at maps and documents. The one man who was not dressed like the others, stood in the middle of the room nodding or talking to those who he asked questions or sent him data from their personal screens.“Good, one less to worry about,” he responded, no emotion in his voice or features. He looked around him daring them silently to argue with his statement. None did though a few gave him cold look, mainly the females he noted. One woman held his gaze a little longer than the others, her eyes cold with a hurricane brewing behind them he thought smiling slightly. She narrowed one eye then turned back to her computer giving him the finger as she turned. He shrugged; he didn’t care what these techno-geeks thought of him only if they could do their jobs. Many of them hated him for ending the lives of almost twenty agents or soldiers that he had in his company’s pay roll. He had no use for them and he could not let them back into what was left of modern society, so he sent them to the most hostile areas on the globe. Top Level was his and he was not ready to give up or be taken out by his own soldiers.

Top Level military base middle of Oregon February 4th, 2040 3 years later

The rifle bucked in her hands as she fired into the swirling gray fog that was sweeping towards the base. At 27 she was one of the younger members of the team but her rifle skills were remarkable and in Top Level she was one of the best shooters. Trained by the TL’s finest, her body was thin but very fit. She could run faster than at least half the men on the team which she did not fail to bring up when she wanted an argument. Her face was pretty but her eyes conveyed the sense that you were always looking into the eyes of a trained killer which she was. Brown hair flowed over one eye and she brushed it away as she trained her custom built $100,000 sniper rifle on her next target. Shoulders dropped as she allowed her training to kick in and she relaxed, breathing slowly and steadily. Just barely she touched the trigger and the rifle kicked her in the shoulder again. Her bullet penetrated her target and killed it instantly. Bolt back forward then lock she thought as she reloaded. She was known as Kat, not the name that she had been born with but she didn’t care. It was better than her first name she thought. Kat’s full name was Katrina A. Carran but if anyone said it they normally ended up getting injured or taking a round to the chest, head, leg, arm she thought randomly. Around her the rest of her team brought their guns to bear on the surging wave of beasts. Hundreds of bullet casings flew through the air as her team let loose. Mortar rockets flew over their heads, and base defense guns came into play as targets came into their firing distance. The base stood like a fortress towering into the sky with its parapets covered in soldiers and artillery. Black smoke rose from smoking craters on the flat plain all around the base. Kat pulled the trigger twice more and dropped into cover as she loaded a new magazine into the KHS-10 sniper rifle receiver. She looked over her barricade to see the beasts charging forward, mouths open with fangs glistening in the setting suns light. They looked like wolves in a sense but these would have to be wolves on steroids she thought as one jumped at her. Grabbing her Uzi she leveled it at the base and pressed the trigger. The beast cowered before her and then with swift determination it grabbed Uzi and tossed it away from her. Its eyes flashed orange and its mouth opened into what could be called a smile. It slammed her down onto the ground but as it came down for a bite she drew her combat knife and stabbed upward. Its eyes went blank and it fell to the ground. Kat pulled herself to her feet in time to see a mortar blow three of the beasts to kingdom come about 20 feet from her. It shook her and she rolled into a ditch where two soldiers lay. Looking closer she realized one was dead and the other was almost. For a killer she was sensitive to death which was a little strange but as the last breaths came from the boy, barely a man he held out his hand and she took as tears streamed down her face. Her world was crumbling around her and she could do nothing for this man or any of them. She knew him only by face but as she watched him die she felt she knew him as much as her team mates.Her mind buzzing and still holding the dead man she looked about she was totally disoriented. Where was her team? She had been right next to them. Wiping her eyes she got up and trudged through the mud away from the bodies as the rain came down. The rifle shot as another beast charged forward dying two feet from her. Kat’s face became emotionless as she waded through the bodies of comrades and soldiers she had known. It was so hard to keep her cool she thought, her hair plastering to her head from the rain. A man ran past her slipping and falling as a blade or a claw passed through his chest killing him instantly. She closed her eyes and fell to the ground covering her head. It was all too much, just too much she wanted to scream to the sky. One can only take so much and Kat had reached that limit and surpassed it. Her mind passed into darkness and she lay still in the dead and dying. Her camouflage body armor, and the TL insignia soon becoming lost in the blood and mud.

Next morning

The battle ended at 1 in the morning with artillery pushing the beasts back and away from the base. Outside of its walls lay hundreds of soldiers bodies some alive some not. Those who survived retired to their bunks to wait and sleep of the hell. “Jason awakened something you know Director and he died because of it, those beasts were the same that killed him, now what are we going to do?” asked the commander of what was left NATO.The Director of TL looked back at the face on the screen, “He was of no use to us and we believed at the time it was just one not hundreds.”“You foolish bastard, that base is your last rabbit hole you can run to, and your other enemies will pull you out of it if they have to,” the face replied.The Director raised one eyebrow, “How can you talk when NATO is in pieces, its soldiers scrambling away from your enemy. I am in a better position than you when it comes to a defensive position.” The man whose face was imposed on the screen cut the connection and turned to face his advisors and politicians. TL had always been a pain in the ass but it had had its uses. Now though, they needed to be destroyed and quickly he thought, as he told his staff what their new plan of attack was. As the orders made it to the pilots, 200 V-22 Osprey’s lifted off from the airbase. Ramps closed while others remained open with gunners standing beside their machine turrets. Over 800 soldiers, mobilizing to finish of Top Level. After this day he would need to have a drink he thought to himself; maybe talk to some of his buddies in NATO’s large force.

10,000 ft. above the ground over Oregon 1600 hours

“Actual calling Misfit, I repeat Actual calling Misfit, be advised you have 10 drones approaching at 300 knots, estimated time of arrival in 10 minutes.” The voice came over the comms and the soldiers in the 13th Marine expeditionary unit sat up, tilting their heads as more information came in. The 13th MEU had already been decimated in this war going from almost 2,200 soldiers to 800 soldiers when an attack on a beachhead against their enemy had gone badly wrong. Those final 800 who had survived now sat in the Osprey’s preparing to be ripped to shreds by those 10 drones flying right towards them. In the lead osprey two such soldiers looked at each other and nodded, donning their helmets and vests and grabbing their weapons from the racks above their heads. They pulled down their M4 carbines strapping them to their sides, all 20 marines getting up as the ramp opened. Goggles and respirator systems were put on and the marines grabbed straps hanging from the ceiling as the first gust of air shot into the cargo bay. “We have the green light, let’s go and show these monkeys what we got!” yelled the jump officer from the side of the door. The first marine jumped as every other osprey unloaded its soldiers into the fires of war. Bullets shredded the front of the osprey as the team of twenty jumped. Captain Harris looked over his shoulder as the ten drones flew through the squadron of ospreys guns blazing in the gradually darkening sky. Spreading his arms he dropped aiming himself towards the rest of his squad. He looked down and around at his marines, only 17 he thought looking back towards the V-22’s. By now the turrets in the bodies of the Osprey’s had come alive sending thousands of bullets into the drones that had desecrated the peace. Tracers lit up the dark sky as Osprey after Osprey opened fire shooting the drones out of mid-air, and sending their little robot brains to the ground. His Osprey on the other hand was on fire, pieces of its fuselage falling from it as his last two marines, jump master, and one pilot jumped. And explosion rocked him as the plane exploded sending shrapnel down to the ground missing him and his team by inches. He pulled his parachute as did all the other marines and their armor blended into the sky as they dropped into the landing area. As soon as he had landed Harris looked around him finding those who had jumped at the last second and checking if they were all right. Apart from a few shrapnel wounds they were all alive. He went over to the other squads of the 13th MEU noting one squad was missing. “Where’s Misfit 10, they jumped didn’t they,” he asked Yin his second in command and a close friend.“Sir, their V-22 was shot down. A missile right into the side of the troop compartment,” Yin replied watching Harris’s face. He noticed the hard look coming into Harris’s eyes, and the clenching and unclenching hands. “I’m sorry sir, they didn’t make it.”“Not your fault Yin, we made it with most of the unit at least,” replied Harris. He turned from yin and went over to his command squad, “How we doing apart from losing Misfit 10?’ He asked.Harris’s second answered, “We’ve lost five soldiers from Misfit 5, and Misfit 3, apart from that and Misfit 10 we still have enough soldiers for the mission sir.”“Good, then let’s move,” replied Harris. He went over to misfit one making sure they were ready for the fight ahead. “Men we got a three hour hike ahead but you should be prepared for small firefights now let’s get moving.” He looked into the eyes of each marine seeing a strong resolve and a want for revenge for Misfit 10. Good, he thought, they were ready as ever. As they made their way out of the forest the marines turned to salute the burning remains of Misfit 10’s V-22 which was spread over about a mile of ground. Harris saluted as well and prayed for the marines that had been lost. Not only were they the first casualties this mission but he had lost friends as well. It was no point in checking for survivors, he could clearly see the pieces of the fuselage which was a burning hunk of metal, even the cockpit was destroyed. The marines turned away from the sight of the fire and they headed off with hard, cold eyes.“Misfit 1 this is Actual, we have your trackers showing up on our screens, remember the enemy is not to be shown any mercy,” Came a voice over Harris’s headset. “Don’t worry sir, we’re fighting for Misfit 10 now, we’ll send those bastards back to hell,” he replied and the headset went dead.

Top Level base 1800 hours

“He’s sending a force to deal with us you know Director,” said one of his assistants.“Let his forces come, they don’t have the balls to mess with us, or the strength for that matter,” the Director answered smiling.“Yes sir, but he has NATO at his disposal, sir,” replied the assistant.“We are ready for them, now go get me some coffee, and find where their marine unit is that our drones engaged,” He said. His assistant jumped and then scurried of. NATO can’t do shit to us the Director thought sitting down at his desk balancing his head on his hand as he stared at the video from the drones that had shot down one of the marines Osprey’s. It was beautiful, the missile launching and streaking into the side of the Osprey. The explosion lit up the screen and the drone bucked as the energy wave from the missile hit it. Hitting pause the director looked more closely at the video again and noticed something different. He narrowed his eyes and made up seven silhouettes of marines jumping out of the Osprey before it exploded. Zooming on one of the silhouettes he made out the face and eyes one soldier. He cursed as he realized who it was. He got up and walked quickly out of the room cursing as he went. One of his assistants looked at the computer screen and saw the director albeit a bit younger than right now staring back at him.

13th MEU Codename: Misfit 1900 hours

Harris took his final step for the march and crouched as he looked at the impenetrable fortress ahead. “How the hell are we getting into that, it’s a god dammed fortress,” he whispered to Yin who was crouched next to him.“TOW missiles could get us through the doors but sir what’s that lying around the walls,” Yin replied he voice suddenly catching in his throat. “Sir, those are…….bodies, hundreds of them,” He started to shake then.“Not all human either Yin,” replied Harris.

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“Not all human either Yin,” replied Harris. “Let’s go check it out. Call in to NATOC, tell them we’re here.” Yin hurried of to find one of the radio operators. Harris looked back at the fortress, bristling with guns. “Why is this place so important,” he whispered to himself. Walking back to the main group he called Misfit 1 over. “We’re heading down into the valley to look at those bodies and get a feel for what happened here, it’ll also give us a chance to check the fortress out before we breach it.”

“But sir, there are still soldiers in there,” one soldier said. Harris noted that the soldier was barely 20 by the looks of it. “Stay in the shadows and don’t make any loud noises, now let’s go,” Harris said. He led the group down into the valley slowly watching the fortress in grim silence. He estimated it at being 1,000 feet tall and spread over a square mile of rocky land. Painted a dark gray it blended with the dark. Artillery lined the walls, and the main doors looked harder than tank armor. Harris looked away and checked his footing, almost to the bottom of the canyon he started looking at the bodies. Wolves and humans covered in mud and blood. Hundreds maybe thousands of them littered the bottom of the valley straight up to the doors of the fortress. He pulled an assault rifle from the mud, and gasped. The side of it was ripped open and in the side of it a bloody claw still held. He gently removed it, dropping it into a side pouch for later.

“Sir, we have a TL soldier over here who’s still breathing,” came a radio call. Harris looked around and found a group of three soldiers waving at him. He hurried over and looked down at the TL soldier. A women lay there covered in mud, he guessed her at being around 20. One of his soldiers came up to him, “Her names Kat” he said handing Harris the TL signature, and the woman’s dog tags. He stared down at her, her dark her coated with flecks of mud, and her armor ripped open along her back at multiple points.

“Howd she survive this?” He asked squatting beside the unconscious women and moving his hand across her back.

“The TL armor is designed to withstand shrapnel to any part of the body and has another layer of thinner armor plating underneath to stop whatever gets through. However she does seem to be bleeding internally from something.” Replied Harris’s medical officer, Hunter.

“Can you stop the bleeding?” Harris asked.

Hunter stared at him disparagingly, “I’m a medic aren’t I, or am I just another grunt like you.” He smiled a little then knelt down beside the unconscious form and started removing her armor. Moving her right arm to one side he hit the clasps on her side and then slowly started peeling back the body armor. It was surprisingly thin and came away from her black jumpsuit easily. Slowly moving her onto her side, he slid her rifle and backpack out from under her and unbuttoned the back of her body armor. The light Kevlar plates he pulled out were burned and scratched and, in some places blown inwards scaring the women’s back.

“Once you have her armor removed we better get her back to camp instead of standing out her in this hellhole,” whispered Harris to Hunter, who, when he heard this lifted Kat up and onto his shoulder and started walking back up the way they had come. Harris pointed at two soldiers and called them over, “Look around and make sure we haven’t missed anything then report back to me in 2 hours.” They nodded walked of, taking separate paths through the carnage.13th MEU Codename: Misfit 2300 hours Hunter looked out from his tent into the clearing the 13th had made about 10 miles from the fortress. Marines sat near small flickering fires and ate, and talked. Every so often a scout would run into the clearing and then into Harris’s command tent located on the east of the clearing. A light would flare and the shuffling of papers could be heard then the whispering of voices. He let the tent flat drop and looked into the dimly lit tent that he used as his sleeping quarters and surgery room. His eyes flicked to the table where the women lay on her back only covered with her leg armor. Her chest plate and top half of her jumpsuit lay to one side. Rubbing his eyes he sat back in his chair and let his head rest against the tent. Just removing her armor had taken hours with pieces of it being melted onto her skin that he had had to remove gently. She hadn’t woken up surprisingly despite the pain she must be in. In her back alone he had removed twenty five pieces of shrapnel, and multiple patches of skin that were burned or torn. Now bandages wet with blood covered some of the wounds, while the others were stitched up. The only piece of surgery he would need to do would be close to her spine where a piece of shrapnel had imbedded itself. Knowing that he would need to be fully awake for that, he decided to take a couple of hours of sleep before operating. He pulled a blanket out from under his cot and laid it gently across Kat’s bare back. Her head moved slightly but that was all, and with that he pulled of his boots and lay back in his cot. His eyes closed and his breathing steadied as his mind drifted into the realm of dreams.

He woke three hours later, the sky dark outside and the camp quite. Around the camp marines stood on guard, rifles pointed to the ground. Hunter shook himself and climbed from his cot. He dropped unsteadily onto the dirt floor. Rubbing his eyes he turned on the lamps and pulled the blanket back from her shoulders. She moaned softly and her eyes flickered open. They widened as she caught sight of Hunter looking down at her.

“Who are you?” she asked her voice like a whisper.

“I'm Hunter, a medic for NATO. You’ve been seriously injured and need medical attention,” he replied.

She let her head rest back onto the table and asked, “Where am I?”

“Classified, sorry,” he answered knowing full well if he told her where they were Harris would have his head. Kat moved herself to a sitting position and looked at the medic noticing the dark colors of NATO on his right shoulder. The only other marking on his uniform was a patch that read “The Fighting 13th”. A fellow soldier at least, but not a TL soldier. She looked down and quickly covered her chest blushing slightly.

He smiled at her, “I’m a doctor, and I had to remove your armor and jumpsuit sorry. Here’s a top,” he said tossing her a shirt. She pulled it on and felt a twinge of pain from her back. She reached back and felt the scars tracing over her skin. Swallowing a cry, Kat looked at Hunter.

“What happened to my back?” she asked him.

Shaking his head Hunter replied, “I don’t know for certain. All I can tell you is that you had a lot of shrapnel in your back, and there is still a piece lodged in your spine so don’t move quickly.”

She carefully nodded waiting for the pain to start again.He noticed her clenched muscles and told her, “If you don’t touch your back you should be fine. However, I am going to have to ask you to lie back down and take the shirt of. I need to operate on your back once more.”

“Okay, are you going to need to knock me out for it?”

“Only if you want to, at the very least I need to set you up with a morphine drip.”

“Just the morphine drip should be fine.”Hunter nodded and indicated that she should lie back on the table. Lying on her stomach again she relaxed, letting him set up the morphine drip and plunge the needle into her vein. Her shoulders dropped and the drug dampened her senses. Hunter pulled on surgical gloves, and moved his bright light over Kat’s back. She felt his hands touch her back right on her spine, and then she felt nothing. Her back felt numb which made her uncomfortable but she felt so sleepy and happy just lying there on the white table. He lifted something from a table next to her and picked up a scalpel from a tray next to her head. The strangest feeling came over her. She could feel her spine tingle and shivered. Something was attaching itself to her spine. She clenched and shrieked with pain as something bit into her flesh. Her eyes flicked backwards into her head as another burst of pain sped up her spine. Kat kept still and bit her lip until her teeth drew blood. Another….something attached itself to her spine, higher up this time. The pain gradually left her, and her head dropped back onto the table, sweat pouring down her face.

“Sorry about the pain it’s the only way to attach these things, almost finished here,” he told her in a calm voice.

“What…. “things”?”

“They are spinal repair units. At about 4 inches long they help you move more freely and the servo motors are directly connected to your brain.”

“So, basically a metal spine?”

“Yes. But it will allow you to move more quickly than most soldiers, and it will become part of your body soon. You won’t notice a difference in a few weeks. I’m sorry you have to have these things in your back but your spine is fractured. This is the only way that you will be able to run or even walk again.”Flexing her shoulders she heard the sound of small servo motors whizzing.

“Okay,” he said, “try standing for me.” She pushed herself up right and clambered of the table. Gently she took a step forwards on the dirt floor. “Good, it’s working thank god. Just be careful for the next few hours. Now, we need to go see the boss man,” he told her from where he stood behind her. She nodded and pulled on her jumpsuit. She zipped it up to her collar bone and missed the weight of the armor plates. Following Hunter out of the tent she found herself in a clearing surrounded by tents. Pairs of marines stood on guard at the edge of the clearing and glanced briefly at her before looking back into the darkness. Shivering Kat looked towards the central tent. Two marines stood outside their dark red and black blending with the darkness. Hunter stopped in front of the tent and looked at the soldiers. “I need to see Harris, wake him for me will you.” One stood up and pulled back the tent flap. Harris sat inside pouring over maps of the landscape. He looked up for a moment as the wind from outside blew papers from his fold out table and he noticed Hunter and Kat standing outside.

“Come in and make yourselves as comfortable as you can in this cramped space. Sorry for the mess you’ll just have to excuse that.” Kat gently sat down careful not to bump her back on anything. Hunter on the other hand stayed standing near the entrance.

“Should I…………..”

“Yes report back in 3 hours and find a tent where she will be able to stay for now.”